KOSHER TOOTHPASTE- PUHLEEZE!

So we saw an exhibit at the kosher food show for AMERICAN LION brand, OU certified tooth paste.

Their tag line is: Is

your

toothpaste kosher? Ours is!
Because millions of American consumers care about kashrus.

Here we go again, another attempt to make us buy a certified product where no certification is needed. Tooth paste need not be kosher. We do not eat tooth paste. And even if we swallow some, it is not swallowed “derech achilah(in the manner of eating).”

The company’s info sheet informs us that “many rabbis now advise that only toothpaste with a proper hechsher should be used.”

Other than the Chapeau Noir set who are the new Reform Jews and who make up new rules based on nothing all the time, who are the “many rabbis?” Do any of them have real credentials? Do any of them base themselves on HALACHA and not some nebulous notion of Daas Toirah?

The company tells us that some toothpaste is made with glycerin which is often not only a meat derivative, but may even come from pig fat! OMG!

Guess what sports fans? It matters not. Tooth paste needs no hechsher. No more than washing machine detergent for clothes needs a hechsher. Yet, as Rabbi Genack once told us, “Should a baaleh busta wash her shabbes table cloth on which she puts her best dishes and shabbes food in non kosher soap? Well, the Gemara says it is ok. So does Shulchan Aruch.

So now we have to have kosher toothpaste? What’s next- fresh fruit and vegetables? Oh, wait, the agencies are already telling us that fresh veggies and fruits need hashgacha. Wow- what a world we live in.

Shame on the OU for agreeing to give a hechsher to the product. They should have had the halachic integrity to say no. Instead, money, as always, talks.